Violence Week 3

After the eviction of an old man and wife, the invisible man presents a speech atop the staircase of the evicted couple's home in hopes of motivational empowerment. The crowd rushes against the invisible man, toppling him over and flooding the evicted apartment. Managing to stand, the invisible man saw the crowd wrestle their way towards the cop, "Atop the steps the fist with the gun and the next instant they were dragging him down into the snow; punching him left and right, uttering a low tense swelling sound of desperate effort" (280). Though the invisible man's expectation of his speech was not to encourage violence, aggression was straight to follow as a woman, "Aimed and struck, aimed and struck, bringing spurts of blood as they punched him gauntlet-wise between them" (280). Ellison portrays this heated rage and violence not in hopes of showing an angered, disarrayed gathering of individuals, but in hopes of illustrating a scene of unity in which people protest together for a common cause. In spur of the moment, the invisible man bellows, "We're law-abiding, so clear the street of the debris. Put it out of sight!" (281). He speaks the thoughts of everyone in the bustle, claiming that they are not going against the law by their actions, but are contrarily just helping the laws abide. Ellison exemplifies how a violent act can be seen in two different lights: One can view the act as intended and vicious, yet someone else can declare the same act to be unintended violence, claiming it to be merely empowerment and strength.